Eagletarian Blog

You might recall the Eagles were not exactly masters of the hurry-up offense as they tried to come back against New England in the Super Bowl in 2005.

Terrell Owens remembers. And he decided now would be a good time to bring that up, as Donovan McNabb deals with questions about his "cardiovascular endurance" and ability to handle more than one play at a time in Washington.

Owens added: “This is a situation where Mike Shanahan, he sees these two quarterbacks on an everyday basis. We’re talking about training camp, mini-camps, OTAs, things of that nature. He’s had a chance to observe. And you know we have these one-minute, two-minute and four-minute situations going into ballgames. So obviously this is a part of their package where he felt Rex Grossman gave his team the best chance to win at this stage of the game.”

Added Ochocinco, “If anyone else out there feels that Rex Grossman gives the Washington Redskins a better chance than Donovan McNabb to win a game with two minutes left on the clock, they need to slap they selves.”

The situation did not get any better yesterday when offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan jumped into the fray during his weekly meeting with the media. There were reports of issues between McNabb and Shanahan.

"It came down to last week on Monday and Tuesday because of his [Donovan McNabb] hamstring issues." Kyle said. "We were deciding that this guy is hurting and we know he won’t take himself out and we don’t think he should play. We have to rest him up and get him better for the rest of the year. Donovan, being the competitor that he is, came in and said that he will rise to the occasion and he will play. He talked us into it and we said we understand. ‘We will let you go, but if we do feel you are struggling in the game and we think it is possible because when you can’t practice full speed it is hard to be as good as you are. If we do see you struggling we do have to go in a different direction.’ ”

For his part, McNabb said he could have finished the game and conceded that he was insulted to have to answer questions like this from the media after 12 years in the league.

“Absolutely, but it’s part of our jobs." he said. "I know that and that’s why I’m standing here right now, to give you guys a little bit because I know you guys are probably wondering how I felt. I’m just going to make myself available when I need to. That’s my job. But again, I need to just focus on what we need to do here as a unit. There are a lot of things we need to clean up. With this bye week, I expect good things when we get back.”

He said he and Kyle Shanahan are "great," but called their relationship "a work in progress."

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Eagles defensive end Trent Cole was named to Sports Illustrated's NFL Midseason All-Pro team that is in this week's issue by Peter King. Cole has six sacks thus far, tied for 11th in the league and has made 36 tackles.

The magazine also projects the Eagles to make the playoffs as a wild-card team as the fifth seed. The Giants are projected to win the NFC East and be the top seed in the NFC playoffs.

SI picks the Packers to beat the Jets, 14-9, in the Super Bowl in a low-scoring rematch of last Sunday's 9-0 Packers victory.

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Former Eagles tight end Cornelius Ingram reportedly worked out for the Detroit Lions yesterday. Ingram, a fifth-round pick in 2009, missed his rookie season and his final season at Florida. He was cut at the end of training camp by the Eagles.